Nepenthes khasiana

Nepenthes khasiana is
India’s only pitcher plant, and is named after the
Khasi Hills region of Meghalaya State in north eastern India, where this
species endemically occurs.

The
majority of N. khasiana habitats have already been destroyed, and
remaining populations have declined severely as a result of unsustainable
poaching and indiscriminate collection (Bordoloi, 1977). During the 1970s, in
an effort to protect the remaining stands of this species in the wild, the
government of India banned the export of N. khasiana plants and listed
the species as critically endangered on Appendix I of the Convention on
International Trade in Endangered Species. Today, N. khasiana persists
at fewer than twenty sites found between 500-1500 m altitude. The status of
this species in the wild remains precarious.

The lamina is linear, elliptic or
narrowly oblong, up to 46 cm long and 10 cm wide. The apex of the leaf is acute
or obtuse and the base is attenuate and sub–petiolate to petiolate (Figure 636). The petiole is winged, up to 13 cm long and 2.5 cm
wide, and clasps the stem, often becoming strongly decurrent. The stem, midrib
and tendril may be green, yellow, orange or red, especially in direct sunlight.
The upper surface of the lamina is often dark green, whilst the lower surface
is very pale.

The
lower pitchers are up to 12 cm tall and 4.5 cm wide.
The bottom third to half of the trap is ovate and slightly swollen. The pitcher
narrows above this part and becomes cylindrical towards the pitcher opening.
Wings up to 1.2 cm wide run down the front of the pitcher and may be lined with
narrow filaments up to 5 mm long, though such filaments are often lacking. The
peristome is cylindrical, up to 5 mm wide, and of a constant width around the
pitcher opening. The peristome is glossy, lined with fine ribs up to 0.5 mm
high, spaced up to 0.5 mm apart, but the ribs themselves are often hardly
discernible. A gap of a few millimetres is often present in the peristome at the
rear of the pitcher opening, below the lid. The lid is elliptic or
sub-orbicular, often with a cordate base, up to 4.5 cm long by 5 cm wide, and
lacks an appendage. The spur is unbranched and up to 6 mm long.

The exterior of the lower pitchers
is yellowish green or occasionally orangey pink, sometimes mottled with faint
red or orange blotches. The interior of the pitcher is yellow, orange or pink
and the peristome may be yellow, green, orange, pink or red. The lid is the
same colour as the exterior of the pitcher, but often has a red underside. Some
plants produce pitchers with a faint orange or reddish band a few millimetres
wide on the outside of the pitcher, just below the peristome.

The
upper pitchersare up to 21 cm tall and 5 cm wide. The bottom fifth to quarter of
the pitcher is infundibular and variably swollen. The pitcher narrows above
this part, often forming a faint hip, and becomes cylindrical towards the
pitcher opening. The pitcher also often narrows slightly immediately below the
peristome (Figures 637 and 638). Wings are reduced to narrow ridges that run
down the flattened front face of the upper pitchers, and may be hardly
discernible.

All other parts are similar to the
lower pitchers, including colouration, although the complete underside of the
lid is often suffused pure red. A reddish band a few millimetres wide, on the
outside of the pitcher just below the peristome, may be expressed, and often is
lined with short hairs.

Nepenthes
khasiana
flowers from June until October. The inflorescence is a raceme consisting of
2-flowered cymes approximately 25-60 cm long, see Joseph & Joseph (1986).
Some flowers may be borne singly on pedicels up to 13 mm long, with a minute,
attenuate bract below. Tepals are oblong-elliptic and the anther head is borne
on a column of similar length to the tepals. The male inflorescence is twice as
long and denser compare to the female one. Fruits are 20-25 mm long.

Nepenthes
khasiana has
few distinctive characteristics that distinguish it from other morphologically
similar species such as N. distillatoria, N.
mirabilis and N.
vieillardii. Since it is the only species of Nepenthes that
naturally occurs in India and across a very small area, it cannot be confused
with any other species in the wild.

It
is particularly closely related to N. distillatoria, and distinguishing
between these plants may not be straightforward. The two species differ most
obviously in the form of their inflorescences; those of N. khasiana are more typical of Nepenthes
in general, whereas those of N. distillatoria form a lax racemose
panicle, with widely spaced 3- to 5-flowered partial peduncles. The lid of N.
distillatoria is very glandular beneath and its leaves are only ever
slightly decurrent, whereas in N. khasiana the glands are more diffuse
beneath the lid and the leaves are often strongly decurrent. The shape of the
lids and colouration of the pitchers also differs somewhat (see N.
distillatoria species pages). Also, the lower pitchers of N.
distillatoria are usually more strongly swollen in the basal section than
those of N. khasiana which are comparatively cylindrical. Unlike all
other western outlying Nepenthes species N. khasiana produces a
raceme instead of a panicle, which implies closer relation to the Southeast
Asian species. Microscopic differences of taxonomic value include the
indumentum and structure of the digestive and nectar glands too.

Nepenthes
khasiana may also be confused with N.
tomoriana and N. vieillardii, but neither species produces truly
petiolate leaves, and their pitchers are generally distinct in direct
comparison, though the latter species, in particular, may show high degrees of
morphological variation. Certain populations of N. mirabilis may also produce pitchers that resemble
those of N. khasiana, but this widespread species is not known from
India and generally produces finely fimbriate leaf margins, a characteristic
that is unknown in N. khasiana.

A detailed description of N. khasiana extracted from Stewart McPherson’s Pitcher Plants of the Old World (2009)can be freely downloaded here.

Nepenthes
khasiana is
among the most critically endangered of all Nepenthes and fewer than
twenty populations of this plant survive in the wild (Dr. Nagulan Venugopal,
pers. comm.). However, the wild population of this plant continues to decline
as a result of expanding agriculture,
coal mining, limestone extraction, road and bridge construction, and of course
poaching (Dr.
Nagulan Venugopal, pers. comm.). Various in
situ and ex situ conservation
measures have been implemented by the Centre of Advanced Studies in Botany, at
the North Eastern Hill University, and by the Ministry of Forests and
Environment. The result of these measures is that some populations of N.
khasiana are now permanently protected, such as at the delightfully named
Pitcher Plant Lake in Jarain. The potential for long term survival of this
species in the wild is uncertain, but will surely depend upon the continuing
efforts of the local communities to preserve those habitats that remain.

It is of
paramount importance that all lineages of N.
khasiana are retained in cultivation and propagated to preserve the
reproductive potential of this species. If you grow distinct strains of N. khasiana that are not in the Rare Nepenthes Collection, and are willing to
donate or sell plants, cuttings or seeds of legally cultivated plants to Ark of
Life, please contact the Rare Nepenthes Collection
team through this contact page of this website.

If you
cultivate N. khasiana,but are unable to contribute material
to the Rare Nepenthes Collection,
however would still like to help save this species, please register
your plants with Ark of Life, so that we can develop a breeding programme and
record all plants of this critically endangered plant in cultivation.

Sustainably produced, tissue
cultured N. khasiana plants,
propagated with zero impact on wild populations can be purchased from the
following sources;